2023 MLB Hall of Fame Voting

Scott Rolen was the only one voted in this year. 

*sigh*

Look, I like Scott Rolen as much as the next guy, I'm sure he's quick witted and fun to be around and can probably take down a pitcher of beer like nobody's business. But I (in the Bob Ryan parlance) just never thought of Rolen as a Hall of Famer and I still don't. 

Dude, compare his numbers to Gary Sheffield, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Carlos Beltran--or, fuck, even Jeff Kent!--and you'll see he's not nearly as good as these guys that are way behind him in the voting.

We blame the decline in baseball over the last 20-ish years on football, kids today, social media, short attention span, rap music, political correctness--blame whatever you want. But when the baseball writers give up on their own game to reward guys solely for not getting busted for drugs, then what are we doing here? We've turned an appreciation of the game itself into a system of navigating the socio-political nonsense of the day. It is the baseball writers that brought us to this state with their stupid selfish faux outrage. They're the ones who gave up on baseball, not the kids.

A baseball Hall of Fame without Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, ARod, Manny, Clemens, etc., is a hall of mediocrity. Welcome to the Hall, Scott Rolen. The baseball writers paved this road with their good intentions.